Post Ostarine - Help With Bloods & Possible PCT

[Driveslot]

Hello,
I'm on week 10 of what was planned as a 12 week cycle of 25mg/day ostarine. I was naive and didn't get pre-cycle bloods taken (but I'm trying to get ahold of my surgical records from a few years ago to see if they ran a hormone panel for a general/vague reference - I had a tibia and humerus reconstruction). Over the last 10 weeks I've put on 13 lb and my current stats are:
26 year old male, 5' 11", 174 lb, ~12% BF (determined from pictures). I can't tell if I've just put on muscle or also dropped BF at the same time. But I've definitely put on muscle. After week 6 I had four separate people I know well comment on my increased muscularity asking if I changed up my training (I'm a climber and have always been very active with endurance sports).

Maybe this stuff is not actually ostarine, or it's highly anabolic in myself. Maybe I should send it off to get it tested.

Back to the point, I just got my bloodwork done and I want to know what you guys think.
Summary:
AST: 111 0-40 IU/L <----HIGH!
ALT: 38 0-44 IU/L
T, Total, LC/MS 373.3 ng/dL
Free T(Direct) 16.1 pg/mL
TSH 1.520 uIU/mL 01
LH 2.2 mIU/mL 01
FSH 2.7 mIU/mL 01
Estradiol 28.1 pg/mL
SHBG 20.5 nmol/L

My AST seems unreasonably high. I'm strongly considering stopping early and would like suggestions. While I don't have pre-cycle bloods, I think I'm seeing liver toxicity and slight suppression.

I know I'm not shut down. But, I don't just want to linger at mediocre T levels for a few months while my HPTA normalizes. I want to be productive. At these levels I think I want to run some nolva and hcg (already on hand) in a PCT to push my T levels higher and help my HPTA normalize.

But I'm a novice, so please imbue some wisdom

My Upcoming Goals: Come off Osta. Do PT for my golfers elbow tendinopathy. Dial in my diet and training to shed BF.

 

[Dr JIM]

The fact your AST is elevated with a normal ALT level suggests another "toxin" such as ETOH, may be responsible for your hepatic enzyme changes.

As you have already eluded to the absence of pre-cycle bloods greatly complicates your current blood work bc MANY folk have those values, are asymptomatic in spite of having never using PEDs.

Thus the more reliable means of determining a cause and effect relationship is to discontinue the suspect agent/s and repeat the testing in a few weeks.

 

[Driveslot]

Thanks for the reply!
If those hepatic values are due to EtOH then I'm pretty surprised. I literally drink 1-3 units (1 unit ~6oz red wine, or 12oz light-med beer) every other week. And I don't smoke (weed either), take prescriptions, or OTC pain meds except rarely. I guess I did use topical hydrocortisone recently.

Can you educate me as why EtOH could raise AST but not ALT, but ostarine would potentially raise both?

How many weeks would you wait to retest bloods if you were in my shoes? I already stopped due to high AST and am on nothing. Would you test for anything else while I'm at it? I'll probably omit the met panel.

Oddly, my pre-op bloods never ran a hormone panel.

 

[Dr JIM]

Thanks for the reply!
If those hepatic values are due to EtOH then I'm pretty surprised. I literally drink 1-3 units (1 unit ~6oz red wine, or 12oz light-med beer) every other week. And I don't smoke (weed either), take prescriptions, or OTC pain meds except rarely. I guess I did use topical hydrocortisone recently.

1) Can you educate me as why EtOH could raise AST but not ALT, but ostarine would potentially raise both?

2) How many weeks would you wait to retest bloods if you were in my shoes? I already stopped due to high AST and am on nothing. Would you test for anything else while I'm at it? I'll probably omit the met panel.

3) Oddly, my pre-op bloods never ran a hormone panel.

1)The changes in hepatic enzymes is well established in the medical literature with regard to ETOH vs AAS and is related to hepatic cytochrome induction processes. That's to say ETOH primarily increase AST while AAS increase ALT values.

But it's NOT an ALL OR NONE phenomena as some degree of overlap occurs. It's bc your AST is above twice normal while your ALT was NORMAL suggests an NON ASS cause, AND the most likely agent is ALCOHOL!

With respect to Ostra who knows what effect ANY supplement has on LFT's since their quality control measures are limited at best. I mean do you KNOW what you were taking was even OSTRA, NOPE

2) 4-6 weeks

3) That's not odd but is the STANDARD, as TT or gonadotropin levels don't correlate with outcome within the immediate postoperative interval. Fact is I've NEVER seen TT or gonadotropin levels listed as a pre-op oder! (They may be useful during rehab or the convalescent period however)